Is XP's Fix Safe?

Windows XP Service Pack 2 promises to protect you from the most
pervasive worm attacks, stop pop-up ads, and tighten security in Windows'
Achilles' heel, Internet Explorer. But given the problems many users
experienced with XP's first service pack, some people have been waiting to hear
whether this update is more likely to hurt than help.

The news is mostly positive: With SP2 finally making its way onto
millions of computers, early reports suggest that the upgrade has gone smoothly
for the majority of those who have installed it. But for at least a significant
number of people, SP2 has spelled trouble, triggering software conflicts,
system slowdowns, network outages, and in some cases boot failures. Blame for
the difficulties (some of which are still emerging) may rest with software and
hardware vendors, or with Microsoft itself. But regardless of who's at fault,
if you were hoping that the decision to install SP2 would be easy, think
again.

SP2's Street Cred

By all accounts, Microsoft went to considerable lengths to work the bugs
out of its latest bug fix in hopes of avoiding the slowdowns, crashes, and
boot-up problems that bedeviled SP1 in 2002. Although SP2 was widely expected
to appear in June, the company delayed the launch twice to address last-minute
problems before releasing it in August. Since that time, XP users have
downloaded SP2 manually through Microsoft's Windows Update service or
automatically via XP's update feature. A Microsoft spokesperson predicts that
the service pack will be installed through automatic updates on about 100
million PCs by the end of October.

To find out how some of these early adopters fared with SP2, we surveyed
3421 Windows XP users about their attitudes toward and experiences with the
update. (Because the participants in the survey were self-selected--they
responded to an invitation on our Web site to report on their experiences with
Windows XP--the results cannot be generalized to all users of Windows XP.)
Though Microsoft's rollout of the patch through Windows XP's Automatic Updates
feature had barely begun, more than 60 percent of the survey's respondents
reported that they had already installed SP2.

No rush: Michael Rask of Killeen, Texas, is holding off
on SP2 until he's certain that it won't conflict with software at his auto
repair shop.No rush: Michael Rask of Killeen, Texas, is holding off
on SP2 until he's certain that it won't conflict with software at his auto
repair shop. But of those who hadn't installed SP2, more than
a third reported that they feared the update would impede system performance.
Michael Rask of Killeen, Texas, says he's waiting until he's sure SP2 won't
interfere with his installed software. Rask, who manages an automotive repair
shop, is confident enough in his own ability to maintain adequate security to
hold off on installing SP2. "Security is not a problem, since I run up-to-date
firewall and antivirus programs, delete 90 percent of my e-mail, and run
Firefox as my browser," Rask says.

Of the survey respondents who did download and install SP2, about
three-quarters detected no problems afterward. The remaining respondents
experienced some postupgrade fallout, though 10.3 percent described the
problems as mild, having little effect on their ability to use the PC. Another
9 percent, however, reported experiencing moderate difficulties, and 4 percent
encountered problems that made the PC difficult or impossible to use.

Of those who reported snags, 31 percent experienced malfunctioning
software, 14 percent had system slowdowns, and 8 percent reported having
trouble connecting to a home or office network. Of the 2106 respondents who
installed SP2, 34 (1.6 percent) said they'd run into the worst-case scenario:
Their PCs wouldn't boot.

Crash victim: After Ed Norris of Logansport, Indiana, installed SP2,
his PC wouldn't boot up. His dealer suspected a ZoneAlarm conflict.Crash victim: After Ed Norris of Logansport, Indiana, installed SP2,
his PC wouldn't boot up. His dealer suspected a ZoneAlarm conflict.Ed Norris of Logansport, Indiana, an employee of the state's
department of health, found himself in this unfortunate predicament. "The
computer got partway through rebooting but then kept shutting itself down and
attempting to reboot again. It wouldn't even go to Safe Mode," Norris recalls.
After working on it for several hours, his computer dealer got the PC going
again by booting with a rescue disk, uninstalling SP2, and reinstalling both
Windows XP and SP2. No data was lost, and Norris's bill came to only $45. The
dealer blamed the trouble on a conflict with Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm firewall,
which Norris had installed.

Microsoft says that older versions of ZoneAlarm are among the many
third-party applications that are incompatible with its new service pack. Zone
Labs vice president Fred Felman says that the problem may lie elsewhere. "I'd
say it's a relatively small group of people that have had trouble with our
firewall," he says, adding that at least some conflicts that on the surface
appear to be software-related may actually be caused by hardware. "The first
thing you blame is your firewall," says Felman, "but the conflicts with SP2 are
on every level."